Chapter Three=========
0800 Hours, September 23, 2552 (Military Calendar) Aboard UNSC destroyer Iroquois. Three days after the initial Battle of Earth.
It was three days after the Covenant were defeated at Earth, and the escape of the lone Covenant cruiser. The UNSC had been preparing Earth's defenses even more, as ONI predicted there would be an even larger fleet coming to destroy Humanity. The majority of Earth was again under Human control and only minor pockets of Covenant resistance remained. The surviving Spartans: Fred, Will, Linda and the Master Chief all returned from the surface and docked with the Iroquois.
The Security Council had decided that since the battle on Earth was nearly over, and that since most of the UNSC Marine Corp was stationed on Earth that the Spartans were not necessary. The Security Council decided that it was still Earth's best and last hope. To continue the mission the Spartans were assigned before the fall of Reach.
The repairs on the Iroquois were complete, and the Longswords and Pelicans stationed in the port and starboard fighter bays (that were installed after Sigma Octanus) were all prepared and reloaded. The Spartans modified one of the Pelicans to carry double armor and with the help of some technicians, opened up the thruster pods to make the ship maneuver faster.
As for the Iroquois, all the hull breaches were repaired, the Archer pods were refilled and 50mm guns were reloaded. The Iroquois still had all three Shiva nuclear warheads and recently received three HAVOK nuclear mines. Fifty new ships from what was left of UNSC controlled space had arrived, including the last of the cruisers and carriers. Five new frigates and two new destroyers were finished at the orbital shipyards and the last five Super MAC stations that were being built before the battle were completed. The area surrounding the Earth defense perimeter was mined with dozens of HAVOK nuclear mines.
Archimedes stared out of the view port and watched dozens of craft fly between the UNSC fleet and sighed. He wondered if this part of the battle would be successful like the first. He also prayed that the Spartans completed their longshot mission. If they could get aboard a Covenant ship, Humanity might have a chance. The sound of an alarm disrupted his thought and his training kicked in.
"Report!" Archimedes shouted.
"I read 1-9-0 bogies inbound, bearing 374. Their powering weapons," came Hikowa's reply. Archimedes looked out of the view port again and saw hundreds of Covenant ships jump from what seemed out of nowhere. Red moots of light charged on the sides of each and every one of the Covenant ships.
The Super MACs fired. Thirty-seven hits and thirty-seven ships exploded. In the middle of the Covenant fleet ten nuclear mines went off, destroying the entire Covenant fleet.
But then more ships appeared out of Slipspace. Archimedes did a quick count of them all. There were more than 350 Covenant ships. Archimedes froze; against the 190 ships earlier they had a good chance. Now he wasn't so sure. Every last ship in the UNSC fleet fired their MACs and their Archer pods. Hundreds of thousands of missiles and hundreds of heavy multi- thousand ton slugs of metal streaked towards the Covenant fleet. Pulse lasers fired.
Archer missiles and MAC rounds hit. Explosions filled the sky. The Super MACs fired. Dozens of more ships went up in a ball of fire. Nuclear missiles were launched from every UNSC ship, and the Covenant fired their plasma weapons. Dozens of the UNSC ships exploded and burned. The nukes exploded. Many ships that were unshielded exploded, and the remaining Covenant ships' shields were down. The Covenant fleet advanced forward, nearly three-quarters of their number was left behind. The Super MACs fired again. Two of the rounds missed, but the rest made contact. Thirty- five ships collapsed into them and erupted into a ball of fire.
Archimedes looked at his radar readings only fifty-two Covenant ships remained. Suddenly, a plasma bolt hit the starboard of the Iroquois. Archimedes flew from his command chair.
"Deck 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Sections 1-14 have taken hits! Fire near the reactor!" shouted Hikowa.
"Inform the crew to get respirator packs, sound decompression alarm and then vent those sections," Archimedes replied emotionlessly. "Fire all guns!" Hundreds of Archer missiles streaked from the Iroquois into an advancing Covenant frigate. Two thumps resounded and twin MAC rounds accelerated from the Iroquois into the same Covenant frigate. The missiles hit first, damaging the already battered Covenant ship. The first MAC round hit near its engines. The second was a clean miss.
"Report on enemy starship?" asked the Captain.
"Their engines are off-line, weapons seems to be down. Atmosphere is venting on all sections of their ship," said Hikowa.
"Get me Spartan-117 on the line," Archimedes told Hikowa. "Inform him that they have a job to do."
Below decks John-117 got the message from the Captain and nodded to his squadmates. They new what to do. The Pelican lifted off from the deck of the Iroquois, as did three Longsword fighters and two other Pelicans. They six ships flew in a triangle formation and raced towards the Covenant frigate. MAC rounds and plasma flew through space at each fleet. Covenant and UNSC ships alike exploded in a ball of nuclear fire. One of the Longswords exploded. A Pelican broke off from the formation.
"Stay on course, pilot." The Master Chief said over the COM. The Pelican returned to formation. A pair of Seraphs flew towards the approaching UNSC ships. The Pelican John ordered to return to formation exploded. The Longswords broke off and fired their missiles and guns at the approaching Covenant single ships.
They exploded.
The distance from the Frigate and the Pelican dropped rapidly. John read off from the computer. Fifty kilometers. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten. Five. One. A bang resonated within the hull and John and Fred flew backwards.
"Sorry about that," said Will. The ramp on the back of the Pelican lowered, and the Spartans silently crept out. Linda pulled out her sniper rifle and activated the night vision. Will put in the last shells into his shotgun. Fred crouched in front of John, his assault rifle ready. John pulled out a pair of heavy pistols, the same kind Kelly used at ONI's CASTLE base on Reach.
The Spartans activated their magnetic boots and walked out. Since the atmosphere leaked on most of ship, the Spartans made no sound. Covenant bodies floated lifelessly around the Spartans. John fought the urge to immediately shoot the bodies then and there. His motion tracker was useless, since there were hundreds of Covenant bodies floating within the hull of the frigate.
Fred took point and moved ahead of the group. He ran as fast as he could to the walls of the entrance and kept his gun aimed at the door. He peered out of the entrance, and when he was satisfied it was cleared of living Covenant, he gave a hand signal to the rest of the group. John nodded and the Spartans all ran to the entrance, and together all walked out, their guns aimed in four directions.
The team made their way to the bridge of the frigate as quickly and quietly as they could. They encountered no resistance. Even though the ship had been gutted, this made John nervous, and gave him the feeling that something was wrong. John learned long ago to listen to this feeling. He tried to put off his worries as the group made their way to the bridge.
After what seemed to be hours they made it to the bridge. The bodies of Elites clad in Red and Blue armor littered the deck. The Master Chief noticed, however that the Golden Elite that he saw usually at the bridge of a Covenant vessel was not present in this collection of bodies. This, to made the Chief nervous. He kept his pistols aimed at the doors and walked backwards into controls, turned and pulled out a data chip and inserted it into a slot on the control board. The Covenant database was uploaded into this chip. When the download was complete, the Chief pulled out the database and inserted it into one of his slots in the base of his neck. He was about to signal the Iroquois that their mission was accomplished when Linda tapped his shoulder.
John turned around to see a large group of Covenant surrounding them. He saw many Grunts, Jackals, a pair of Hunters in space suits, and in the middle, a Golden Elite. Linda aimed for one of the Hunters with her sniper rifle. Fred aimed for the other. Will primed a plasma grenade and John aimed both his pistols at the Golden Elite.
At once the Spartans fired. Immediately both Hunters went down. The grenade latched itself on a Grunt and it ran towards a group of Jackals. The Golden Elite's reinforced shields went down from multiple bullets from John's pistols. It immediately jumped behind a fall pillar and fired at the Spartans. The Grunt with the grenade attached to it exploded and many Covenant went up with it. Some had carried Plasma Grenade's and they went up too.
Linda fired at a few Grunts and Fred jumped from the central platform into the middle of some Jackals. He bashed them with his rifle. The Jackals fired and Fred's shield flared. Will fired with his shotgun at the random Covenant target and an overcharged plasma pistol bolt hit the back of his suit and his shields flickered once and died. Will immediately sought cover from behind one of the control boards.
John threw a fragmentation grenade at the Elite, heard a startled grunt and saw it jump from its hiding spot. He unloaded both clips in the pistols and killed the Elite. He slammed a new clip home into each Pistol. The Covenant in the room were dead. John saw multiple red blips appear on his motion tracker. He nodded to the Spartans and they all dashed to the Pelican. Plasma fire came out of nowhere. The Spartans simply fired back at the Covenant and kept running.
They made it to the Pelican and dashed aboard and continued firing. John slammed an armored fist down on the controls and the ramp came up. Will jumped into the cockpit, fired up the engines and the Pelican lifted off from the frigate. Plasma fire from other Covenant ships flared through the sky. Archer missiles and MAC rounds were all aimed at these ships, and they exploded. The Pelican raced back towards the Iroquois and at top speed crashed into the starboard landing bay. The land gear deployed and was immediately ripped off from the Pelican. The bay doors slammed shut and the John could feel through the hull a sudden change, the ship was changing course.
The Iroquois raced towards the Super MAC guns, with dozens of Seraph fighters chasing after it. The Super MACs fired, and destroyed the fighters. The Covenant, judging that they had lost the battle, veered their fleet away and jumped into Slipspace. John activated the COM.
"Master Chief Spartan-117 to Bridge," John said, with a deep sigh. "Mission accomplished."
End Chapter 3.
0800 Hours, September 23, 2552 (Military Calendar) Aboard UNSC destroyer Iroquois. Three days after the initial Battle of Earth.
It was three days after the Covenant were defeated at Earth, and the escape of the lone Covenant cruiser. The UNSC had been preparing Earth's defenses even more, as ONI predicted there would be an even larger fleet coming to destroy Humanity. The majority of Earth was again under Human control and only minor pockets of Covenant resistance remained. The surviving Spartans: Fred, Will, Linda and the Master Chief all returned from the surface and docked with the Iroquois.
The Security Council had decided that since the battle on Earth was nearly over, and that since most of the UNSC Marine Corp was stationed on Earth that the Spartans were not necessary. The Security Council decided that it was still Earth's best and last hope. To continue the mission the Spartans were assigned before the fall of Reach.
The repairs on the Iroquois were complete, and the Longswords and Pelicans stationed in the port and starboard fighter bays (that were installed after Sigma Octanus) were all prepared and reloaded. The Spartans modified one of the Pelicans to carry double armor and with the help of some technicians, opened up the thruster pods to make the ship maneuver faster.
As for the Iroquois, all the hull breaches were repaired, the Archer pods were refilled and 50mm guns were reloaded. The Iroquois still had all three Shiva nuclear warheads and recently received three HAVOK nuclear mines. Fifty new ships from what was left of UNSC controlled space had arrived, including the last of the cruisers and carriers. Five new frigates and two new destroyers were finished at the orbital shipyards and the last five Super MAC stations that were being built before the battle were completed. The area surrounding the Earth defense perimeter was mined with dozens of HAVOK nuclear mines.
Archimedes stared out of the view port and watched dozens of craft fly between the UNSC fleet and sighed. He wondered if this part of the battle would be successful like the first. He also prayed that the Spartans completed their longshot mission. If they could get aboard a Covenant ship, Humanity might have a chance. The sound of an alarm disrupted his thought and his training kicked in.
"Report!" Archimedes shouted.
"I read 1-9-0 bogies inbound, bearing 374. Their powering weapons," came Hikowa's reply. Archimedes looked out of the view port again and saw hundreds of Covenant ships jump from what seemed out of nowhere. Red moots of light charged on the sides of each and every one of the Covenant ships.
The Super MACs fired. Thirty-seven hits and thirty-seven ships exploded. In the middle of the Covenant fleet ten nuclear mines went off, destroying the entire Covenant fleet.
But then more ships appeared out of Slipspace. Archimedes did a quick count of them all. There were more than 350 Covenant ships. Archimedes froze; against the 190 ships earlier they had a good chance. Now he wasn't so sure. Every last ship in the UNSC fleet fired their MACs and their Archer pods. Hundreds of thousands of missiles and hundreds of heavy multi- thousand ton slugs of metal streaked towards the Covenant fleet. Pulse lasers fired.
Archer missiles and MAC rounds hit. Explosions filled the sky. The Super MACs fired. Dozens of more ships went up in a ball of fire. Nuclear missiles were launched from every UNSC ship, and the Covenant fired their plasma weapons. Dozens of the UNSC ships exploded and burned. The nukes exploded. Many ships that were unshielded exploded, and the remaining Covenant ships' shields were down. The Covenant fleet advanced forward, nearly three-quarters of their number was left behind. The Super MACs fired again. Two of the rounds missed, but the rest made contact. Thirty- five ships collapsed into them and erupted into a ball of fire.
Archimedes looked at his radar readings only fifty-two Covenant ships remained. Suddenly, a plasma bolt hit the starboard of the Iroquois. Archimedes flew from his command chair.
"Deck 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Sections 1-14 have taken hits! Fire near the reactor!" shouted Hikowa.
"Inform the crew to get respirator packs, sound decompression alarm and then vent those sections," Archimedes replied emotionlessly. "Fire all guns!" Hundreds of Archer missiles streaked from the Iroquois into an advancing Covenant frigate. Two thumps resounded and twin MAC rounds accelerated from the Iroquois into the same Covenant frigate. The missiles hit first, damaging the already battered Covenant ship. The first MAC round hit near its engines. The second was a clean miss.
"Report on enemy starship?" asked the Captain.
"Their engines are off-line, weapons seems to be down. Atmosphere is venting on all sections of their ship," said Hikowa.
"Get me Spartan-117 on the line," Archimedes told Hikowa. "Inform him that they have a job to do."
Below decks John-117 got the message from the Captain and nodded to his squadmates. They new what to do. The Pelican lifted off from the deck of the Iroquois, as did three Longsword fighters and two other Pelicans. They six ships flew in a triangle formation and raced towards the Covenant frigate. MAC rounds and plasma flew through space at each fleet. Covenant and UNSC ships alike exploded in a ball of nuclear fire. One of the Longswords exploded. A Pelican broke off from the formation.
"Stay on course, pilot." The Master Chief said over the COM. The Pelican returned to formation. A pair of Seraphs flew towards the approaching UNSC ships. The Pelican John ordered to return to formation exploded. The Longswords broke off and fired their missiles and guns at the approaching Covenant single ships.
They exploded.
The distance from the Frigate and the Pelican dropped rapidly. John read off from the computer. Fifty kilometers. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten. Five. One. A bang resonated within the hull and John and Fred flew backwards.
"Sorry about that," said Will. The ramp on the back of the Pelican lowered, and the Spartans silently crept out. Linda pulled out her sniper rifle and activated the night vision. Will put in the last shells into his shotgun. Fred crouched in front of John, his assault rifle ready. John pulled out a pair of heavy pistols, the same kind Kelly used at ONI's CASTLE base on Reach.
The Spartans activated their magnetic boots and walked out. Since the atmosphere leaked on most of ship, the Spartans made no sound. Covenant bodies floated lifelessly around the Spartans. John fought the urge to immediately shoot the bodies then and there. His motion tracker was useless, since there were hundreds of Covenant bodies floating within the hull of the frigate.
Fred took point and moved ahead of the group. He ran as fast as he could to the walls of the entrance and kept his gun aimed at the door. He peered out of the entrance, and when he was satisfied it was cleared of living Covenant, he gave a hand signal to the rest of the group. John nodded and the Spartans all ran to the entrance, and together all walked out, their guns aimed in four directions.
The team made their way to the bridge of the frigate as quickly and quietly as they could. They encountered no resistance. Even though the ship had been gutted, this made John nervous, and gave him the feeling that something was wrong. John learned long ago to listen to this feeling. He tried to put off his worries as the group made their way to the bridge.
After what seemed to be hours they made it to the bridge. The bodies of Elites clad in Red and Blue armor littered the deck. The Master Chief noticed, however that the Golden Elite that he saw usually at the bridge of a Covenant vessel was not present in this collection of bodies. This, to made the Chief nervous. He kept his pistols aimed at the doors and walked backwards into controls, turned and pulled out a data chip and inserted it into a slot on the control board. The Covenant database was uploaded into this chip. When the download was complete, the Chief pulled out the database and inserted it into one of his slots in the base of his neck. He was about to signal the Iroquois that their mission was accomplished when Linda tapped his shoulder.
John turned around to see a large group of Covenant surrounding them. He saw many Grunts, Jackals, a pair of Hunters in space suits, and in the middle, a Golden Elite. Linda aimed for one of the Hunters with her sniper rifle. Fred aimed for the other. Will primed a plasma grenade and John aimed both his pistols at the Golden Elite.
At once the Spartans fired. Immediately both Hunters went down. The grenade latched itself on a Grunt and it ran towards a group of Jackals. The Golden Elite's reinforced shields went down from multiple bullets from John's pistols. It immediately jumped behind a fall pillar and fired at the Spartans. The Grunt with the grenade attached to it exploded and many Covenant went up with it. Some had carried Plasma Grenade's and they went up too.
Linda fired at a few Grunts and Fred jumped from the central platform into the middle of some Jackals. He bashed them with his rifle. The Jackals fired and Fred's shield flared. Will fired with his shotgun at the random Covenant target and an overcharged plasma pistol bolt hit the back of his suit and his shields flickered once and died. Will immediately sought cover from behind one of the control boards.
John threw a fragmentation grenade at the Elite, heard a startled grunt and saw it jump from its hiding spot. He unloaded both clips in the pistols and killed the Elite. He slammed a new clip home into each Pistol. The Covenant in the room were dead. John saw multiple red blips appear on his motion tracker. He nodded to the Spartans and they all dashed to the Pelican. Plasma fire came out of nowhere. The Spartans simply fired back at the Covenant and kept running.
They made it to the Pelican and dashed aboard and continued firing. John slammed an armored fist down on the controls and the ramp came up. Will jumped into the cockpit, fired up the engines and the Pelican lifted off from the frigate. Plasma fire from other Covenant ships flared through the sky. Archer missiles and MAC rounds were all aimed at these ships, and they exploded. The Pelican raced back towards the Iroquois and at top speed crashed into the starboard landing bay. The land gear deployed and was immediately ripped off from the Pelican. The bay doors slammed shut and the John could feel through the hull a sudden change, the ship was changing course.
The Iroquois raced towards the Super MAC guns, with dozens of Seraph fighters chasing after it. The Super MACs fired, and destroyed the fighters. The Covenant, judging that they had lost the battle, veered their fleet away and jumped into Slipspace. John activated the COM.
"Master Chief Spartan-117 to Bridge," John said, with a deep sigh. "Mission accomplished."
End Chapter 3.